Bee Network initiative could be cycling blueprint

Andy Burnham has claimed that Greater Manchester’s joined-up cycling and walking network could provide a national blueprint for reducing congestion and air pollution.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester is calling on the government to back plans for an 1,800-mile network of protected routes for pedestrians and cyclists, with Chris Boardman, the region’s cycling and walking commissioner, suggesting that the Bee Network initiative could increase journeys on foot or by bike by 2.5 million a day, cutting some journey times by 50 per cent and saving the NHS £6.73 billion by improving people’s health.

Change a region to change a nation, a new report commissioned by Transport for Greater Manchester for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, contains projections of a 350 per cent increase in daily cycling trips over the next 10 years, a one-third increase in daily walking trips, and up to 130,000 fewer daily private car and taxi trips.

Burnham said the plans were a national blueprint for promoting real change in the way people travel, and government backing was paramount. The report will be delivered to Westminster in February.

He said: “Our city region’s 10 districts have been working on these plans since 2017 and, crucially, residents have helped to develop them, based on what they want their neighbourhoods to look like. Now we have a world-class plan and we know how to deliver it, but we cannot do it alone. We need the government to back us with sustained funding over the next 10 years to enable us to complete the Bee Network. If they do so, they will be helping create a model that can be replicated across the rest of the country.”